Free & Cheap Technology to Spice up your Class

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a conference on Student Success and Retention. One of the sessions was lead by a self-declared technology geek, who offered a fantastic list of free and cheap technology. It made me think of the stuff that I use and about some of the conversations I’ve had with Ron about technology. Here’s a list of some applications you might find useful in your courses… 

Lucid Chart is like Visio, but it’s free for educators (instructors must set up the account for their class). It is useful for projects like mind-maps, process flow, organizations charts, etc. 

Have students provide feedback in the classroom using their cell phones using Poll Everywhere. Provides real-time feedback. You can use this to survey the class or to assess for learning. 

Create your own cartoon using Xtranormal. It reads the script that you type, with characters and settings you choose. Just don’t let this allow you to procrastinate from some of the less fun aspects of setting up your courses. 

Prezi is like PowerPoint but not really…all I can say is to check it out. It may completely change your world and how you think about presentations. There is a free educator’s version (use your .edu address). 

Jing allows you to create free screen capture videos (limit 5 minutes, but that keeps it within our attention spans, too). If you have a short PowerPoint or Prezi presentation, you can use this to create a mini-video. It will capture whatever is on your screen, including Office documents. It’s a clever way to provide feedback to students on their papers. The pro version is quite inexpensive and has more features, such as allowing the use of a webcam for a video of YOU!

Sliderocket allows you to import PowerPoints, add audio, and create essentially a movie. There is a free version (“lite”) and a discount for more advanced versions for educators.  

Google Chrome has an add-on feature that will let you create QR Codes using this app. What are QR codes? It’s those weird little black and white boxes with the small dots or boxes. With a QR reader, people can use their cell phones to take a picture and navigate directly to the page. It’s especially helpful for long, ugly URLs and for those using other devices to surf the web (e.g., iPhones, Androids, etc.). Get more information here.

How do I find more? How do I know which to use? There’s so much out there! Fortunately, there are folks out there who love to try this stuff out and review it. Here’s a helpful website that allows you to look for services and compares different options for you.

Please share in Comments your favorite free and cheap technologies that you are currently using…